Vu Mai Anh (right) was presented with a USD2,500 scholarship by Duquesne University

They include three French, one Polish, one American and 20 Japanese pilots, who will compete in four events: speed flying, point-counting flying, team flying and rescue flying.

Among them are famous names of the parasailing world, including Japanese champions like Ryoya Igarashi, 56, who was the champion in 2003, 2005 and 2009 and Nobuo Sekiguchi – the Japanese champion in 2000 and 2004.

Other renowned names include Didier Eymin from France who flew through the Sahara desert in 1988 and Emilia Plak, from Poland, the champion of the international gliding competition held in the Czech Republic in 2009.

After five days of the contest starting on May 23, organisers will present three awards. The winner will receive US$10,000, the first runner up will get one parachuting engine worth $3,000 and the second runner up will receive a height measuring kit worth $1,000.

At the event, visitors can fly with international athletes for VND1.3 million ($65) per flight, and enjoy other activities such as a culinary garden, a drinking garden and areas to showcase Danang traditional handicrafts, and tourism products and services.

The organizing board says that the competition is held to strengthen Vietnam-Japan relationship, to draw tourists to Da Nang and to advertise Da Nang as a city of tourism and festivals.

The total funding for this event is VND15 billion ($750,000), raised from non-State sources, said Than Ngoc Hai Cat, director of Cati, the event organizer.

The major competition area will be a region with a radius of 100km and ceiling height of 170km above My Khe beach.

Meanwhile the area for speed flying will be a rectangular space measuring 9km by 1.5km with ceiling height of 300m which stretches from the northernmost point of the major competing area to Ngu Hanh Son Mountain.

Summer camps, live skill courses awaiting urban students

The summer holiday would come only in one month, while general schools are still busy reviewing lessons to prepare for the second semester exams. However, Nguyen Thi Mai in Tu Liem district in Hanoi now has to think about where to send the two children to in summer holiday.

There are so many choices for training courses and summer camps for urban children this summer: the leaflets introducing summer training programs have been delivered to her everyday, when she is at the office or walks on streets.

“My daughters are eager to attend summer camps. However, I still need to think about this. I do not have detailed information about the programs, while the costs are very high,” Mai said.

Not only delivering leaflets to parents and students, training centers have also joined forces with schools to bring summer camp programs into schools and turn the programs into official extracurricular activities of the schools.

Nguyen Thanh Nga, Deputy Head of the Ly Thai To High School in Hanoi, also said that there are many invitations for summer training programs, but no agency comes forward and certifies the quality of the programs.

In mid April 2012, the live skill training center belonging to Vietsea Company, launched two summer camp programs named “We are military officers,” which would comprise of seven series, commencing on May 28 and ending on July 14. Every student would have to pay 3,980,000 dong to attend the programs.

4T center in HCM City has also launched a noisy ad campaign for the “2012 eventful summer camp” program with six topics: namely military summer camps, sports, countryside, live skills, job career and international summer camps. The costs are also relatively high between 2 million dong and 4.2 million dong.

Well off families tend to send their children to overseas summer camps. Thien Hung Overseas Study Consultancy Firm has offered the summer camp package in Singapore and Malaysia with the cost of 28 million dong for one week and 47,400,000 dong for two weeks camps.

Explaining the high costs, Nguyen Tung Lam, Deputy Director of 4T Center, said 40 percent of the expenses would be paid for students’ travel, accommodation and meals, the other 20 percent on uniforms and props, while the other 40 percent on other services, including the work of ensuring safety for children.

Rural children lack playing fields in summer

While urban students have so many choices for spending time in summer, rural students do not know what to do when they do not go to school.

Ta Huu Quang, Youth Union’s Secretary of the Hoang Hoa district in Thanh Hoa province, said that rural areas lack playing fields for children. The youth union is the organization which takes the responsibility of organizing summer activities for local children. However, as there are not enough officers and necessary funds; the organization of summer activities still has been depending on the “kindness” of local authorities.

The children aged 10-15 in An Khe commune of Thai Binh province only begins their summer holiday from mid August, when the new academic year nears. A Youth Union’s officer in the commune said the children do not have any other program except the mid autumn festival which lasts three days.

“Extra income” is higher than “main income”

The private tutoring classes of LDD, a physics teacher of the Gia Dinh High School on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street in HCM City are always full of students. D has three tutoring shifts a day, except Monday and Friday. Especially, on Saturday and Sunday, D spends all of his time on the teaching.

The students going to D’s classes have to pay 1.5 million dong for three month learning with two shifts a week. Every month, D can earn 50 million dong from the private tutoring classes, much higher than the salary paid by the State budget, just several million dong a month.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the monthly income of 10 million dong is considered “high income.”

It’s very difficult to book at a seat at D’s classes. Students need to begin studying here when they enter the 10th grade. Meanwhile, D would refuse the students, who do not follow his classes from the beginning.

A teacher of a high school for the gifted, who runs private tutoring classes in Phu Nhuan district in HCM City has been so well known, that students have to scramble for a seat at the classes. Parents would have to register study for their 8th grade children, so that the children can begin following the private tutoring from the 9th grade. This means that parents need to book a seat at the classes one year in advance.

The well-known teacher is so professional that he has a website of his own, where he informs the timetable for every school year.

NH, who is also a well-known teacher of a high school for the gifted, only accepts 10 students for every class. The students are mostly from well off families, which are ready to spend big money to be able to learn with good teachers. In general, the students gather in small classes, because they think that overcrowded classes would not bring the desired effects.

When asked about the income from the private tutoring classes, H said: “Of course, the “extra income” is much higher than the “main salary” I receive for my job as the teacher of the high school.”

H went on to say that his income is more “modest” than some other teachers, who can earn enough money to buy villas in the central area of the city just after several years of teaching privately.

The assistant professors at private tutoring classes

NCD, a well known teacher in HCM City, gives private English lessons in the living room of a house on Huynh Van Banh Street in Phu Nhuan district. When giving lessons, D usually stands next to the gate, and he runs two classes at the same time. Sometimes, when there are too many students, he would ask for the help of an assistant, named Lan, who takes care for the students of the small class.

The students go to class two times a week and they have to pay 150,000 dong a month. As such, the teacher can earn 75 million dong a month, if he runs 10 classes with 50 students in each class.

For the last many years, people have voiced their criticism against the private tutoring movement. MOET has promulgated strict regulations to restrict the private teaching. However, despite the efforts, the problem has not been settled to every root.

The naiad is lurking

In fact, the out-of-season landslide has been occurring in the last few years, but it has become alarming. On May 9, 2011, a landslide case occurred at the Rach Cam Market in Long Hoa ward of Binh Thuy district in Can Tho City, killing two and injuring five. Meanwhile, a part of the Rach Cam Market, covering an area of 320 square meters collapsed into the river.

Another landslide case occurred on the morning of March 4 in Binh Duc village of Long Xuyen City, sinking tens of houses. The cracks at the landslide site, next to the Highway No. 91, are threatening the traffic safety, while the households in the areas have evacuated.

The “red alarm” has also been rung for the Cho Gao canal in Cho Gao district of Tien Giang province. More than 150 places with landslide have been found, which has encroached on the shore by 2-20 meters. In many places, the stretches of roads along the canal have been damaged, badly affecting local residents’ life.

In Can Tho City, which is called the “metropolis of the western region,” which has the system of canals with 1000 kilometers in length and 65 kilometers of the Hau River section, 24 landslide points with the total length of 56 kilometers have been found. There are latent risks at the landslide points which threaten the safety of people’s lives.

Landslide works still awaiting capital

Mekong River Delta’s residents hope that the anti-landslide projects to be implemented in the future would protect them from the disaster. However, they still do not know when the projects would be carried out, while the disaster is getting more serious.

In 2010, the Can Tho City’s authorities approved the plan on fighting against the landslide in the city, under which 29 embankment works would be built in the period of 2010-2030.

The works would have the total length of 50 kilometers and the investment capital of two trillion dong. It is expected that 15 works would be completed in the first phase of the plan, in 2010-2015, while 12 works would be completed in the second phase, in 2015-2025, and three works would be implemented in the third phase, in 2025-2030.

However, most of the works still remain on paper, because the local authorities still do not have money to implement the projects. To date, only the project on building the embankment system on O Mon River (the first phase) has been kicked off.

The work is expected to have the length of 1260 kilometers, located in the territory of Chau Van Liem ward of O Mon district. This would be a solid embankment with reinforced concrete, which would ensure the safety for local residents’ life and upgrade urban planning

The whole construction work, from the O Mon Bridge to the Hau River, capitalized at 416 billion dong, would be carried out in four phases which lasts four months. Local residents have been expecting the embankment work with patience, because it would protect them from the river shore landslide

As the situation has become serious, in late 2011, the Can Tho City People’s Committee submitted to the government the plan to build 14 embankments with the capital from the state budget, including four urgent projects, planned to be implemented in 2012.

However, Pham Van Quynh, Director of the Can Tho City’s Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, has foreseen that it will take much time to get the disbursement from the state budget, because the city would have to follow necessary complicated procedures.